Job Discussion Forums

sharpe88 · Joined: 21 Oct 2008 Posts: 226

I have found that some of the eager students (especially private) are adamant on preparing for a lesson, even if the topic has not been introduced yet.

What do you do ? Just give them the general topic ? Give them a specific task ?

XiGua · Joined: 13 Dec 2009 Posts: 91 Location: Hunan

I don't tell them anything. There's no reason to tell them. Aside from maybe a "Ok class read Unit 4 for next week" they shouldn't require preparation. If I want them to prepare for something i'll give them homework.

If you want to be a jerk you can give them something to do completely unrelated to the lesson. Then they'll stop asking once they realize you're just giving them extra work. I'd do it if kids constantly bothered me about it.

gene · Joined: 03 Mar 2010 Posts: 187

nickpellatt · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 1522

Almost all the teachers I work with give out there material at least a day early. I totally refuse to do so, and would be prepared to walk out if I was really challenged over my refusal.

The students request my material, because they want to do the thing I am continually trying to stop them doing. Dissecting every sentence with their dictionaries, and writing both Chinese and phonetics all over the page.

I do a lot of work with students in pairs or 3's, getting them to pore over any vocabulary items, and work together to pool their knowledge and discuss context to understand meaning. Giving them the material before will stop a lot of my lesson aims. I also use games, music and set schemata to nicely introduce my topics.

I teach adults pre-int+ in a private language school. This approach might not be the same in different places of course

Insubordination · Joined: 07 Nov 2007 Posts: 394 Location: Sydney

I find it annoying too. Particularly because, when I have a heavy workload, I often don't prepare until an hour or two before the class but don't want to confess that to them. A bad habit, I know.

Maybe just pick out a theme for the week. Something broad and general and do a little on it each lesson. Things like "Sport", "Education" or grammar points or a conversation topic like "Luck" or "What if..?" and tell them to look on the internet at vocab sites or to prepare an anecdote or opinion about it. that. It might even give you some ideas. It's nice that they want to really considering a lot of students don't care much.